Nature and the Environment

Signed on September 28, 2019 in Reggio Calabria the Framework Agreement between Consortium NET, the Azimut Association of High Education, the Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria, the Ecolandia Consortium and the IKSDP Kenya- Self-help Group (Harambee Gwassi Project). The Agreement aims at promoting international cooperation from Calabria on issues of local sustainable development, sharing technical expertise, culture, scientific research and technological development.

For some time now, all the actors involved in the stipulation of the cooperation agreement have been operating jointly in Calabria and in the Nyandiwa area, located in the Suba sub-County (Homa Bay County) near Lake Victoria in Kenya. Each actor contributes to the project in its own specific field of expertise and it considers that it is highly significant to collaborate according to the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity in the direction of sustainable and long-lasting development and cooperation between people at all levels. NET, manager of the “Environment and Natural Risks” Innovation Pole, participates in the activity of international cooperation in Kenya called ‘Calabria for Harambee’ towards sustainable development of local communities.

Among others, the Agreement’s signatories committed to contribute to the technical-scientific training of Kenyan personnel, to the development of rural areas in Italy and Kenya and to the strengthening of the bond between the two countries in order to face the environmental and social challenges within the framework of the Agenda 2030 goals. Therefore, the parties intend to carry out initiatives and projects in the following priority sectors: agriculture and sustainable forestry, protection and enhancement of natural resources and landscape, territorial and city planning, technological innovation and circular economy.

NET, within its program of internationalization, will support the activities starting from the relocation of an operational headquarter in Nyandiwa, Gwassi, where it will implement activities of research and analysis on the priority topics of protection and enhancement of areas with fragile environment and related natural hazards.

The project is mutually beneficial. The implementation of “practices” to contrast and adapt to climate change in realities such as Kenya, where extreme events hit continuously with absolute rapidity and intensity, can provide examples of good practice, methods and actions to contrast and to adaptat to climate change also in Calabria.

The project will be developed over time according to the following guidelines:

1) Realization of a prototype-experimental plantation in Kenya – Gwassi Division that will allow to evaluate in advance the following objectives on a natural-scale laboratory:

– technical-scientific solutions and innovative agro-forestry models to mitigate the effects of desertification in marginal agricultural areas, adaptable to the territory of Calabria too;

– eco-sustainable solutions in agricultural and forest ecosystems to combat desertification processes (forest re-naturalization; recovery and enhancement of plant ecotypes resistant to water stress, etc.);

 – bio-monitor of ecosystems and development of early warning indicators of stress in plants (use of technologies and non-destructive systems);

2) Development and testing of an alert-monitoring-response system to extreme events according to the M&E Report model developed by the NGO COSPE and, in particular, to prevent and react to climate change, through resilient practices aimed at mitigating the effects of drought.